Eyes of the Glyptotek

I shot these two, somewhat abstract views of roof skylights, as I was wandering around the Glyptotek on Free-Sunday--the sun and sky were showing through at the same time. Both of the light monitors are the same, but one has a dome-like interior piece built over the rectangular opening. The circular bit in the middle is a Danish Modern (hanging) pendant lamp by Poul Henningsen. These light fixtures are everywhere in Copenhagen--in both old and new buildings The quality of light is affected by bright red and blue colors on the inside of the fixture. Link to the light here.

Accidental Art

I found this beautiful fiasco wandering around the city center yesterday-- a very quiet Sunday afternoon, with evidence of a busier morning. The tracks went on for half a block in three directions.

Caught Up and Planning

Now that I'm caught up on posting old blog entries, I can start planning my trip through western Denmark. I had a great meeting with my contact at the Danish academy who helped me refine a list of museums and recommended that I rent a car for a four-day-dash up and down the long peninsula of Jutland.

So That's How it's Done

_

Copenhagen Business School

My friend Kevin Driscoll from Seattle dropped in for a few days after his summer architecture program in Switzerland. He rode for about three weeks on his bicycle through Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium and finally to Denmark. Impressive man! I showed Kevin a few highlights including this building which I pass on the daily commute.



The CBS building was designed by Lundgaard+Tranberg, the same Danish architects that did the new excellent playhouse. The facade has mechanical shades that can be moved with the touch of a button on the inside--there are two shades to a button. I know this, because of course we had to play with them. The atrium space is just fantastic, with beautiful light, and plenty of stone steps which also act as benches, not to mention the futuristic tube elevators and the incredibly thin-sections on the spiral stair. (pre-cast concrete) Why are there so many spiral stairs in Scandinavia and so few in the U.S.? Anyone?

Link to the Lundgaard+Tranberg site here.

Copenhagen's Quadrennial

Modeled after the big biannuals, but not as big, the Copenhagen Quadrennial is the city's first attempt at an international art festival. It turns out there was a competition of ideas for a city art festival and two young women won the contest with a proposal for this years festival called U-Turn. Frankly, I have seen better art at many graduate school thesis shows, but there were some gems... and more importantly some really great ideas for exhibition venues and programming albeit a little ill-communicated. Just for an example, the above image is what I found when I navigated my way through the city in order to go to the "U-Turn Information Center." I'm being harsh here, but to give credit, they really did tackle quite a big project in an ambitious manner.



I went to the opening night of the biggest venue--an unused warehouse-ish building at the original Carlsberg Beer Brewery complex. They set up several of the big spaces with a combination of artists work, and sited other installations in these little storage or office type rooms off to the side. They really effectively occupied the building. My favorite piece of the night was a performance reminiscent of a Josheph Beuys action, but maybe if Beuys had slept in late that day and was feeling a bit cheeky. Title: Wet Paint Handshakes. There was a big bucket of water for washing the paint off after a handshake, and a stack of cloth towels for drying. It was quite fun to watch new people enter the exhibition and size up this bald man in a suit standing in front of them with his hand stuck out to shake. The brave and fun ones got right into it, others acted like they didn't really see him, and there were those, that after watching for five minutes or so decided to go out, re-enter the exhibit and shake the man's hand as if they were just getting there for the first time. Funny, I was one of five or six people that were walking in to the show, just as the artist was arriving himself. We were a bit too early to really be a part of the social experiment.

After the Beginning

After no consistent internet connection for the month of August, I now have a wireless connection plus access to the beautiful facilities at the Danish Academy. Their semester just started and the campus is buzzing with eleven hundred architecture students. _ Over the next week I will post highlights from my first month of city exploration and museum research in Copenhagen.

The posts will all be back-dated to reflect when they actually happened!

White Marble and Pink Latex

On a second trip to the Carlsberg Glyptotek I noticed a small sculpture that I had overlooked previously. I don't know how I missed it actually--a headless mythic animal-like statue with multiple breasts made of pink latex really does stand out when it is placed next to white marble statues of greek gods. But it works perfectly. This is a great example of a museum that could easily not include a piece like this and get along just fine with its collection of various antiquities and French Impressionists. It's just fantastic that they aquired and exhibit a piece by Louis Bourgeois from the 1980s in this context. I wish more museums had the guts to do this.

Day Trip to Sweden: Dizzy Spells, The Quirkiest Park in the World, A Curious White Tiger in a Blanket, and A Wild-West Sauna

Completed in 2000 and connecting Copenhagen Denmark to Malmö Sweden, the Øresund bridge is the longest border crossing bridge in the world. It also is one of the longest cable-stayed spans as well. Amy and I walked our bikes aboard a train that runs under the four lanes of traffic across the bridge, and spent the day in Malmö. Link to pictures and more info here.


We had two main goals in Malmö: See the new development along the western harbor and go to the Malmö Art Museum. Goal one check. We biked through a large neighborhood development along the waterfront that seems to be an ongoing project. There were some interesting urban design choices as well as building projects and landscape/hardscape. There is only one real high-rise at this point which is the so-named "Turning Torso" building by Santiago Calatrava. Pictures here. Well, it might look cool or whatever in pictures, but in person it comes across as downright silly. Looking up at it causes dizzy spells, because it looks to be in the process of falling right on top of you. I think Calatrava should stick to bridges. The highlight of the western edge, was well the western edge... the waterfront. They accomplished a close connection to the water by really allowing people to get right down -in- the water.



After snooping around the waterfront, we biked in towards the city center. We passed what might be the coolest kids playground ever. The surfaces are all made of colored rubber that squishes under foot, its almost bouncy. The rainbow object is actually a little foot bridge and the butterfly thing is a jungle gym. Crazy benches too.



Our first disappointment came when we tried to enter the "closed" Malmö Art Museum. I screwed up my dates and they were in the middle of hanging a new show. I did however get some solace when I peeked in the window side window to find quite an interesting scene...



After biking around a bit more, wondering what to do--and getting a bit cold as well--we happened upon a magical land called Ribersborgs Kallbadhus. Well, not really a "land" but the building reminded me of a Hollywood set for a western frontier town saloon. The place is actually a turn of the last century (1898) sauna-house. There is a mens side and a womens side. The rickety wooden building 100 meters out over the sea, had these little 5x5 foot individual changing rooms with a door and window overlooking a common swimming area. This area was surrounded by more changing rooms and a wrap around deck. The sauna rooms all face the wide-open sea and once you've had a good twenty minutes of wood-fired dry sauna heat, you can trot out to the outmost dock and cold-plunge into the ocean. Fan-tas-tic. The Kallbadhus website has a funny description describing the traditional no-swimming suit option, which is the norm at this sauna house... "The baths are a charming and relaxing place to go for people who like to sunbathe without getting sand in their bathing costumes!"